She Becomes The Hero In Another World 7 She Becomes A Vendor

"Of all the things to forget to grab, I had to forget food." Robin sat on a bench, feeling quite sorry for herself. The inn only served breakfast and dinner. She was on her own when it came to lunch.

'Perhaps I could see if there's another weeding job?' She wondered. But, then shook her head. If all the weeding jobs included a large magic plant monster, then she'd need a good sword. But, she didn't have a sword.

"Maybe for today, I can just go back to the inn and sleep until dinner?" She wondered. But, then she would lose a day to earn valuable money necessary to get herself a good sword. Her mind drifted back to that sword in the stone. If she could have a sword like that, then there would be no need to worry about magic plant monsters.

Grrrruummmbbblllle.

She hugged her stomach, regretting handing over those dandelions she had gathered yesterday. 'If I had kept them for emergency food, I wouldn't be in this situation right now...' And, of course, thinking about dandelions got her to thinking about dandelion recipes.

Gurrrurrrrumbbblllee!

Even a man at a nearby food stall heard her. Turns out he was the stall owner.

"Haha, hungry?" He asked.

"Yes." Robin replied. The stall owner thought for a bit. His stall was a cooking stall where he cooked meat skewers. He took a set of finished skewers and held them out to her.

"Want some?" He asked.

Robin looked at the meat skewers. GRUMBLE. her stomach loudly proclaimed.

"I don't have any money." She replied.

"If you don't have any money, then you can work for them. See here, I can't man the stall and cook the skewers at the same time, so if you could help me man the stall, I could sell twice as many skewers before dinner!" He said to persuade her. "Besides these ones are slightly burnt, and most of the people around here don't like burnt foods, so you'll be doing me a favor."

"I've never manned a stall before, but I'm willing!" Robin replied honestly.

"Then, here!" The stall owner said. "I can't have any of my workers starve on the job. That would be bad for business. Consider it your pay in advance."

Robin thought about it for a moment, then nodded her head in agreement. "Uhn." She reached for the meat skewers, and once she tasted the food, she understood. 'This stall owner is really a nice man. The meat was only slightly burnt on the outside, but inside is just perfect.'

"Haha, what's with that face?" The stall owner laughed at Robin's blissful face, with her eyes somewhat glazed over.

"Because, this meat is really good!" Robin said, quickly devouring the whole lot.

"Of course! The beef comes from my cow farm, fed on fresh clover and sweetgra.s.ses, it's the best around!" The stall owner proclaimed proudly.

"Oh? I see! It's tasty because it ate tasty things!" Robin replied, thinking to herself. 'Hmmm sweet gra.s.ses... Chickory, Sheep Sorrel, Lamb's Quarter, Daylilies, Violets, even Milk Thistle is edible with some processing.' The meat was tasty because good things had been put into it. That was more than could be said for the cow farms back in her world.

This reminded Robin that nothing was worse than to be out of money.

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"Delicious meat skewers, five for a copper! Hot, delicious meat skewers! Get them while they're fresh!" Robin called out cheerfully from the stall. While it didn't attract a crowd, there was a steady enough stream of people who came to buy that Robin couldn't remember a time when she had five minutes in between.

"Ah, over there! Doesn't that look tasty?" A man said, pointing towards the meat stall.

"...Indeed it does. Shall we try some, then?" The person who answered was the merchant-disguised prince.

"I'll have two servings, keep the change." Someone placed one silver down on the table.

"Okay-Hey, OY! That's one silver, don't you know!? One sil-ver! Even if you're asking us to keep the change, the change exceeds the original price of the meal!" Robin argued, looking up at the person. Then she froze. It was that merchant fellow she had met during her weeding job.

"But, I really don't have any smaller change than this." The merchant said, troubled.

Robin sighed. "We're not paupers. As a business that has been going all afternoon, we at least have enough to give you change for your silver."

Robin quickly calculated, then took out four large coppers for him. "Here. It was two servings, right? Each serving is only a copper, so here is your change." She glanced at him for a brief moment. It seemed he hadn't recognized her.

'Ah. maybe it was because the only thing he remembers of me is my outlandish clothes.' She thought to herself. 'Then I'm safe! Thank goodness!'

"So cheap!" The merchant's companion exclaimed.

"Mmn!" The Merchant agreed, reaching forward to grab the money, but then he paused. "Tell me, why wouldn't you accept the extra coin?"

"Accepting your money today can lead to acceping bribes tomorrow." Robin said. "Taking it creates a debt between us. And I don't like owing anyone. I would forever feel like I owed you for it. When one is indebted to someone, they are not free."

She stared the merchant straight in the eyes. "My life and freedom are mine own, and anyone who wants to take away that freedom with money.. will have to fight me for it. Don't get me wrong. I want to earn money, but I want to do it honestly. Is there a problem with that?" She thrust the coins out at him like they were poison.

The merchant's eyes grew slightly wider, then he chuckled and said. "No. Not at all." He accepted the change, and began to walk away with his companion, who had already gathered their food.

"Hey, you forgot one!" Robin called after him. he waved his hand without looking back.

"It's my thanks for your rousing speech~" He replied lazily.

"But..." Robin looked down at the coin, and made a face. "100 Zetu just for speaking my mind? What a wastrel!"